“Truth has no place in journalism,” I replied. His expression was one of having just been slapped. “What do you mean, Mr. Greene?”
There was shock and disbelief in his voice. “Truth plays no part in reporting,” I told him.
Before he could respond, I went on.
“Remember what I told you before: facts are what matter in reporting, not truth. Truth is subjective – your truth is not my truth and my truth is not the truth of that person over there; truth is biased by our own experiences and beliefs. Only facts are neutral and unweighted.”
He still struggled with the difference. And herein, lies the kernel of my thoughts on this day.
Nietzsche has been most reviled by so many for his refusal to present us with comfortable, convenient “truths.”
Detractors point angrily at the Superman theory (which, while I disagree with it, is not only misunderstood but also was manipulated beyond what Nietzsche intended for the purposes of the Nazis) and he is vilified for advocating an unmoral philosophical perspective.
His apologists shyly respond that, as in the case of Machiavelli, Nietzsche was writing only as an observer of his times and was stating things as they were, not as how they should be.
But in these arguments, the issue – at least as far as I am concerned – is lost.
There are few among us who, as Nietzsche pointed out, would not prefer a convenient and comfortable lie to the harsh and frightening truth. While his purpose was to trace the origins of this “will to truth” to religion and what he saw as its falsehoods, what else we can take from it the idea that – to paraphrase Jack Nicholson – “We can’t take the truth.”
We want things to be better – our idea of better.
In trying to convey this concept to the student, I saw that there is a gap that exists in our knowledge. We have been taught for so long that truth is concrete, undeniable, irrefutable, irresistible. Truth is . . . Truth.
Nietzsche insisted that we seek Truth (as opposed to truth) because of the comfort it give us. It is solid, finite and, most of all, knowable. For that reason we must seek the Truth of all things, regardless of the facts that support or do not support them.
Truth: The Earth is 6,000 years old and was created in five days by a bearded man in a long white robe who sat down by a stream, scooped up some clay and punched and poked it to look just like him.
Truth: The Earth is 14.6 billion years old, was the result of an unfathomable explosion that, itself, was the result of strictly mathematically definable events and humans are the product of a natural, equally definable process of progression that has nothing at all to do with an intelligent intervention.
In these things, we take comfort that our prejudices and illusions are real and that we are not lost in the wilderness of vagueness and uncertainty.
There was shock and disbelief in his voice. “Truth plays no part in reporting,” I told him.
Before he could respond, I went on.
“Remember what I told you before: facts are what matter in reporting, not truth. Truth is subjective – your truth is not my truth and my truth is not the truth of that person over there; truth is biased by our own experiences and beliefs. Only facts are neutral and unweighted.”
Nietzsche has been most reviled by so many for his refusal to present us with comfortable, convenient “truths.”
Detractors point angrily at the Superman theory (which, while I disagree with it, is not only misunderstood but also was manipulated beyond what Nietzsche intended for the purposes of the Nazis) and he is vilified for advocating an unmoral philosophical perspective.
His apologists shyly respond that, as in the case of Machiavelli, Nietzsche was writing only as an observer of his times and was stating things as they were, not as how they should be.
But in these arguments, the issue – at least as far as I am concerned – is lost.
There are few among us who, as Nietzsche pointed out, would not prefer a convenient and comfortable lie to the harsh and frightening truth. While his purpose was to trace the origins of this “will to truth” to religion and what he saw as its falsehoods, what else we can take from it the idea that – to paraphrase Jack Nicholson – “We can’t take the truth.”
We want things to be better – our idea of better.
In trying to convey this concept to the student, I saw that there is a gap that exists in our knowledge. We have been taught for so long that truth is concrete, undeniable, irrefutable, irresistible. Truth is . . . Truth.
Nietzsche insisted that we seek Truth (as opposed to truth) because of the comfort it give us. It is solid, finite and, most of all, knowable. For that reason we must seek the Truth of all things, regardless of the facts that support or do not support them.
Truth: The Earth is 6,000 years old and was created in five days by a bearded man in a long white robe who sat down by a stream, scooped up some clay and punched and poked it to look just like him.
Truth: The Earth is 14.6 billion years old, was the result of an unfathomable explosion that, itself, was the result of strictly mathematically definable events and humans are the product of a natural, equally definable process of progression that has nothing at all to do with an intelligent intervention.
In these things, we take comfort that our prejudices and illusions are real and that we are not lost in the wilderness of vagueness and uncertainty.
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